I'm going to throw my 2 cents in from the eyes of a newbie in this industry. Just 2 weeks ago I was hired at an aerial survey company that puts you on the road for 7 months with basically no time off besides a few holidays and when the weather is too crappy to fly. I though to myself omg this is my break I'm going to fly 600 hours or so and be on my way to the airlines or where ever! Something inside just didn't feel right though.... and the more and more I thought about I got uneasy. I couldn't sleep at night I was getting a tad bit sick. I have a great paying job now aviation related, but non flying making around $65k a year. Well I took the offer and put my 2 weeks notice in. Now sure enough I get an interview for a regional here in the US (my true goal) and to make matters worse my current job is giving me a raise to keep me around. My emotions are all over the place and I realized I shouldn't have so much heart ache over my first break into the flying world. I plan on taking the raise and going to the interview and we can go from there. Flying just isn't worth the crap pay and constant on the road for 7 months. The though of being on the street with 135 mins was too much of a scare. There is thousands of guys like myself that cant find work and to leave a good paying job with just 600 or so more hours in the book just isnt worth it.
Edit: That is probably the worst run contraption of terrible grammar, but my head has just been all over the place lately with the crap this industry is bringing on me, so don't judge the grammar mistakes.